Results of Insajder
“Patriotic Robbery” (second series)
Two years after the first series, hundreds of thousands of euros per day are still spend under the pretext of helping the endangered population in Kosovo, but as Insajder reveals, the money again does not reach those for whom it is needed. The Inquiry Committee of the Assembly of Serbia confirmed all the allegations made in the previous series.
World Championship in Fraud
Insajder journalists analyzed details about embezzlement of the leading people in World football, but also how business worth hundreds of millions of euros in Serbia takes place outside legal channels, which is seriously damaging – both to football clubs and the State.
For years, FIFA has resisted any investigations by competent institutions, and everything mostly ended behind the close doors of the FIFA Headquarters in Zurich. After the arrest of seven prominent members of FIFA in May of 2015, according to indictment that Insajder had insight into, they misused more than 200 million of dollars through racketeering and bribery.
Football players from Serbia play in many leagues around the world, which means that domestic clubs have huge earnings from their transfers. Despite those earnings, the biggest Serbian clubs – Red Star and Partizan, are in financial collapse and depend almost entirely on the privileges and sponsors provided by government officials. Members of the management decide on transfers that bring millions, but Clubs somehow stay broke. Also, from the transfer of players from the two largest clubs, the State should earn through taxes, but there is no control. The unbreakable bond between the members of the club management, the leaders of fans, business and politicians is one of the reasons why the privatization of clubs is not possible. Leaders of fan groups play an important role in the decisions made by the management, even when it comes to selling players. The debts of two biggest Serbian clubs, due to many years of uncontrolled business, are so big today that the two clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy. All the authorities have been treating the two clubs as institutions of national importance for decades. Unlike all citizens of this country, they are allowed not to pay bills, to negotiate their tax obligations, which are measured in millions of euros, to break the law and operate in such a way that they are not responsible for anything.
Every government since 2001. until today announced the privatization of football clubs as the only solution to uncontrolled business and the problem of hooligans, but no government has done so. Today, leaders of fan groups that are often connected with criminal groups, while on club’s board you have representatives of court, police and BIA. All this points to the fact that there are great financial interests that are beyond any control. In this match, so far our analyses showed that the State is losing.
Serbian Arab Business
From towers and cities to planes and millions, those were all the promises that government officials have been communicating to the citizens of Serbia since 2013., with the signing of interstate agreement between Serbia and UAE.
Out of a series of promises about Arab investments, the only one that has been fully realized is Air Serbia. On October 26, 2013, the company JAT Airways, symbolically, after 86 years of existence, in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy, went down in history. The first plane of Air Serbia – the company that inherited JAT – took off from the Belgrade airport for Abu Dhabi. The Arab company gave a loan of 40 million dollars, which in 2014. was transformed into the ownership of 49% of Air Serbia. In five years, Serbia has invested several times more in the joint venture in various ways, from debt repayment to investment, while Etihad gave the joint venture a loan of about 100 million dollars, which must be repaid with interest. Air Serbia also paid Etihad at least 40 million euros for various services in the previous three years. None of the representatives of the competent institutions wants to answer any questions about Air Serbia’s business.
Galenika: Sale Under the Vow of Silence
Galenika, the first and once the largest pharmaceutical company, was founded in 1945. It was sold with the 1 euro as starting price. The buyer, as it was presented, a big pharmaceutical company from Brazil, offered 16 million euros. In the case of the sale of Galenika, according to our research, everything is disputable: from business, through appraisal to sales.
Completed Plan (Plan – Completed)
The Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, was killed on March 12, 2003. Members of the Zemun Clan and the Special Operations Unit were convicted of his murder. Milorad Ulemek, a former commander of SOU who organized the murder, and Zvezdan Jovanovic, a lieutenant colonel in the SOU who shot the Prime Minister, were sentences to 40 years in prison. The other ten defendants were sentenced to a total of 268 years in prison.
Almost all governments in the past seventeen years have announced an investigation into the political background to the assassination of the PM, but it has never been clarified, nor has the role of the security service been established.
In two part series, we presented what preceded the assassination. The campaign against the Prime Minister, that led to the assassination, and just after the Operation “Saber” and state of the emergency, continued against all those who conducted the investigation and trial – judges, prosecutors and police officers. From 2003 until today, several governments have changed. Despite the announcement that the political background of the murder will be revealed, that never happened.
Epidemic of Secrets
Corona virus has changed the world. It also changed Serbia. How it came about, what consequences will it leave, and whether a cure will be found – no one knows. The fight against the epidemic has been going on for months. The way in which the State is governed in times of crises – in political, economical and healthcare domain – leads to greater or lesser trust in institutions. It is not disputed that the goal of those responsible was to mitigate the consequences of the epidemic in every way possible, using the means that the State has at that time. However, the fact that important information were hidden, or were communicated to the citizens in the wrong way, led to anger and fear in part of the public, and trust was replaced by mistrust.
Politics as Business, State as Party Spoil
Which company will get a job from the State, who will be employed and who will not, who will be pardoned and who will be prosecuted – in Serbia, all this depends exclusively on the ruling party. And that is how it has been since the democratic changes until today. Political parties are financed by citizens through the budget. Control of all additional cash flows exists – but only on paper. According to the official documentation – politicians in Serbia live on average salaries, they are not financed by tycoons, and they are squeamish about corruption. Institutions that should check both officials and political parties also exist only on paper. In practice, they are a part of the party spoils. Such a collapse of the system, as Insajder’s long-term research shows, has led to politics becoming a business, and the State – party spoil.